1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer technology, and more particularly, to a computer coupling device capable of coupling together two computer systems, such as a notebook computer and a desktop computer, for the purpose of allowing each computer system to share the system resources of the other and also allowing the two respective CPUs of the two computer systems to be combined to perform a dual-CPU parallel processing task.
2. Description of Related Art
The notebook computer and the desktop computer are the two most widely used types of personal computer systems. Various kinds of peripheral devices have been designed for use with these two types of computer systems. However, since these two computer types are based on different specifications and standards, it would be infeasible to allow a peripheral device specifically designed for the notebook computer to be used by the desktop computer, and vice versa.
One solution to the foregoing problem is to link both the notebook computer and the desktop computer to a network hub, allowing each computer to gain access to the system resources of the other via the network hub. One drawback to this solution, however, is that the data exchange between the two computers is unsatisfactorily low since the network bandwidth is shared by many computers. Still one drawback is that it only allows the two computers to share system resources and unable to allow the respective CPUs of the two computers to be combined for parallel processing.
There exists, therefore, a need for a computer coupling device that can couple two computer systems together and allows each computer system to share the system resources of the other and also allows the respective CPUs of the two computer systems to be combined to perform the function of dual-CPU parallel processing.
It is therefore an objective of this invention to provide a computer coupling device for coupling two computer systems together, which allows each computer system to share the system resources of the other.
It is another objective of this invention to provide a computer coupling device for coupling two computer systems together, which allows the respective CPUs of the coupled computer systems to be combined to perform the function of dual-CPU parallel processing.
In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives, the invention proposes a novel computer coupling device. The computer coupling device of the invention is designed for use to couple a first computer system to a second computer system, with each of the first and second computer systems including a CPU, a Host bus, and a PCI bus, for the purpose of allowing each of the first and second computer systems to share the system resources of the other and the two respective CPUs on the first and second computer systems to be combined to perform the function of dual-CPU parallel processing. When the notebook computer wants to gain access to the system resources of the desktop computer, the computer coupling device connects the Host bus and the PCI bus of the notebook computer respectively to the Host bus and the PCI bus of the desktop computer. On the other hand, when a dual-CPU parallel processing task is desired, the computer coupling device connects the CPU of the notebook computer to the CPU of the desktop computer to allow the two CPUs to communicate with each other for exchange of data during the execution of the dual-CPU parallel processing